BHUBANESWAR: The inordinate delay in handing over houses constructed by LIC Home Finance Limited (HFL) under its LIC Care Homes project at Khandagiri in the City has left buyers, mostly senior citizens, in a lurch.
Alleging breach of trust and cheating by LICHFL, a subsidiary of national insurer LIC, more than 200 buyers have filed a complaint with Economic Offences Wing (EOW).
The buyers alleged that the project was started in 2011 with a professed objective of providing affordable housing exclusively for senior citizens above the age of 50. The flats were to be delivered by the PSU by April 2013.
“Three years have passed since but neither the flats are completed nor the PSU officials are giving any concrete timeline to us. While we have paid more than 90 per cent of the flat cost, we are now being forced to pay interests on loans without even getting possession of our houses. Despite repeated representations, the authorities are non-committal over the fate of the project,” LIC Care Homes Allottees’ Association secretary Sibasankar Rath alleged.
The LICHFL officials, however, said the project was stuck due to failure of the contractor to complete it. The dispute between LICHFL and the contractor has ended in a litigation which has affected progress of the work.
“However, matters are on the verge of resolution and work on completion of the project is set to commence soon. There is less than 20 per cent work left on construction and with all other ancillary infrastructure, the target is to hand over the flats by the end of this year,” project regional manager A Mohapatra said.